Photo of Yuennam This article described 10 examples, 5 from K-12 schools and 5 from universities, how teachers using Internet in a variety of context.
Example 1: Primary School Webfolios
A class of primary 5-6 students who has learnt English for 2-3 years designed their Web pages in English by using Netscape Composer. Topics and tasks for the portfolios were in the curriculum. Contents on the web pages included copying a jazz chant from their course book, creating a table to express themselves like telling about their hates and wants and describing the weather. Though it was time consuming to teach the computer skills, their English teacher, Rachel Arenstein, wanted to continue the project because students could learn multiple intelligences like interpersonal skills, computer skills, artistic skills and writing skills.
Example 2: A primary school E-mail Cultural Exchange
Teresa teaches six-grade English in Portugal. She had successfully conducted two e-mail exchange schemes for her students and the USA students in 1999. The two teachers from both countries carefully coordinated the objectives, activities and logistics before implementing the project. Students in each class were assigned to groups of five with mixing abilities. Topics for the e-mails included self introduction and Christmas. Despite lacking in vocabulary and accessing computer, the project lasted for four months and students writing skills were improved.
Example 3: A Middle School Web Publishing Project
Two English teachers, M. Kneirum and A. Mokry, in Germany developed a web publishing project for a seventh grade English class based on the book K’s First Case.
Students had to work through three processes. First wrote a short summary of the book. Then developed their own ideas in groups on a topic about the story and wrote or video- taped their work and posted on the web site which they created by themselves. Finally they wrote their personal home page and shared each other’s web sites. The project ended up in great success.
Example 4: A Junior High Virtual Classroom
A Junior high school teacher in Taiwan created a bilingual virtual classroom which included an announcement space, a message board, a forum, and a chat room for students to access outside regular class time. By accessing this highly interactive site, students could practice their English after school.
Example 5: A high school e-mail exchange project
This project is organized by two English teachers for their students from Hong Kong and United States to practice collaborative writing which is within the school curriculum. First students exchanged personal letters. Then they wrote descriptive essays about their community in teams and turn them to cloze exercises for their international partners to fill in and shared their cultural packets. After that they worked on their imaginative essays in groups and discussed the topic first with their home classmates, then with the international partners by e-mail. Next, using the grading rubric, they peer-edited their essay with students from both countries.
Finally they worked out the layout and content of the anthology publication through internet discussion. The advantages of this project included enhancing organization, editorial production, negotiation skills and writing skills.
Example 6: An Internet Research Project in an Intensive English Programme
A business English university teacher, A. Hansen, in United State assigned his students to do an “investment project” in which students had to search for potential investment companies and compile an investment portfolio and present them in a web page with links related to the sources.
Example 7: A University-level content-based course
This course is conducted by R. Davis, a university teacher in Japan, asked students to engage in on-line reading, search the Internet, send e-mail messages and construct Web page in his course assignment.
Example 8: A University On-Line Writing Course
J. Steele’s, a instructor in a University in Aguadilla, set up an electric classroom by using Nicenet’s Internet Classroom Assistant for his students to download and upload teaching materials and assignments and gave comments to their classmates’ work.
Example 9: A University – Level problem- Based Learning Course
This course aimed at training students Internet and English skills by finding jobs on line. Students had to search for classified ads, searching and writing CV and application letters.
Example 10: A University Environmental Project
It was an individual and group project assigned by R. Vilmi, a university teacher in Finland, requiring students to work out the project via e-mail communication. At the end of the project, students have to submit a written portfolio of their selected environmental topic, including a introductory letter, a report stating the important of the problem, a plan to solve the problem, a budget… and at last present their work orally.
Self reflection: Most of the cases involved using searching engines, e-mail communication and web pages. e.g. uploading and downloading teaching materials and handing in assignments, chat room and forum discussions etc. I think many of them can apply in my teaching in the future. Take my previous primary students as an example, example 1 to 4 will be applicable on them because it is not difficult for them to exchange ideas via e-mails or chat rooms since I think most of the upper primary school students have that training in their computer lessons. Indeed, I personally like the ideas mentioned in example 5 because it really could help students improve their writing skills without much computer skills needing to be taught. All the writing topics were about their daily lives, and the ideas of anthology publication is excellent since it could on the one hand drive the students to work seriously and on the other hand could keep and share students work with others which could give a sense of proud to all the involving students. However, what bothered me is that it is not easy to find a class of native partners from other countries.
No comments:
Post a Comment